14 Apr Tips for Stopping Procrastination
How To Stop Procrastination Tips
In my experience coaching people who have more serious chronic procrastination challenges than the average person, there are a few more strategies that have been found to be helpful, as well, to manage procrastination. These are outlined below.
Be Clear On The “Why” Of Your Goals and Action Items
Determine the big picture reason for your goal, why the actions need to be completed. For example, someone who wants to create a brochure determines this is necessary for their marketing efforts, ultimately to help grow their business
Break Action Items Into Sub Tasks
For example, in order to complete a task like “pay sales tax for month” one needs to gather information on gross sales and tax owed. Therefore, gathering this information is a sub task to be completed first.
Prioritize Action Steps
By planning with both the overall vision, as well as the details and time frames in mind- you are able to schedule any time sensitive issues first and better understand the action steps needed for success.
Complete Tasks In Order That Makes Sense
Some people also suggest tackling the easiest tasks first, gaining confidence and a track record to finish the others. Some people suggest doing the more difficult tasks first. Ultimately, you know yourself- so decide on the best strategy that works best for you.
Schedule Tasks
Schedule each task into your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly calendar being realistic about their completion dates. Set reminder alarms for each of these tasks and understand what success will look like for each. We like a system using Kanban, a Japanese system for tracking progress on tasks.
Kanban has two rules:
- Visualize your work
- Limit Work in Progress
How to Implement A System Using Kanban
Getting started using Kanban is easy.
In order to visualize your work, use the Kanban board. The simplest Kanban board uses three columns – To Do, Doing, Done. Some people use: To do, In Progress, Test, and Done. You can use a whiteboard to make your own Kanban tracker for this, or a sheet of paper with 3 or 4 columns. We recommend putting it on your desk or around your workstation. Some people like to use a virtual board, using sites like Kanban Zone.
Some people use tracking apps like Asana or Trello.
Define Project Completion and Perfection- But Be Realistic
Agree on what is acceptable for the completed project to look like. Can the project be perfect in the time allotted, or is it okay for perfection to be a work-in-progress?
Get Help
One can not always get everything done themselves. If I can help you on this path to getting things done- set up an appointment for a coaching session so we can walk this journey together.
How To Stop Procrastination